NOCAL Management Team Receives US$63K Monthly Salaries

The interim management team at the National Oil Company of Liberia (NOCAL) has told the Senate Committee on Lands, Mines, Energy, Natural Resources and Environment, chaired by Albert Chie, that each of the entity’s 37 workers (3 employees and 34 contractors) is paid US$63,000 as salaries and benefits.

The disclosure was made Tuesday when three members of the interim management team, including chief executive officer (CEO) Madam Althea Sherman; Karmo Ville, vice president for finance; and Rufus Tarnue, vice president for technical affairs, appeared before the powerful Chie Committee in the Chambers of the Senate for the first of many scheduled public hearings.

The public hearings are necessitated by a communication from Senator Dallas A.V. Gueh of River Cess County, in which he quoted a media report alleging a financially-bloated payroll at NOCAL where an interim management team of 37 employees is receiving annual salaries totaling US$1 million in spite of the financial difficulties the entity is reportedly experiencing.

Sen. Gueh also quoted reports that the interim management team continues to make “very expensive, very frequent and often very unnecessary foreign travels, sometimes to visit families in the United States in the name of going for official business.”

The management team, however, denied making the number of trips as alleged in Senator Gueh’s letter, saying only one trip was made to Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire; and even that, according to them, was a rewarding trip.

In order to adequately dispel the allegations, the team decided to do a power-point presentation on the state of NOCAL before the interim management team that included the number of employees, salaries and cash inflows.

But River Gee County Senator Conmany B. Wesseh argued that the team must address the concerns raised in the letter, because the Senate cannot serve as auditors and as such, there was no need to explain things for which they were not cited. This did not go down well with some of his colleagues, who countered his logic and said the committee was performing its oversight responsibility and as such, was on track.

Asked to fast forward and dwell on the issues raised in Senator Gueh’s letter, for which the hearing was called, members of the committee became alarmed when the team informed them that the salary payment was for three employees and 34 contractors.

“How can 37 employees receive that amount of money from an entity that was declared virtually bankrupt, (for which) their duty was to help keep it intact. I think that money is too much,” Senator Joseph Nagbe of Sinoe County, who appeared enraged, warned.

For his part, Senator Gbleh-Bo Brown of Maryland County asked where the management got its authority from other than the Legislature when it negotiated a US$1.4 million package for their salaries, further recalling that the Legislature did not even make appropriations for NOCAL in the current national budget.

From the grilling by committee members like Senators Nagbe, Morris Saytumah and Nyonblee Karnga-Lawrence thus far, the interim management team is likely to be in for a long haul trying to be convincing.

7 COMMENTS

This is an appallingly badly written article. “NOCAL Management Team Receives US$63K Monthly Salaries”, “each of the entity’s 37 workers (3 employees and 34 contractors) is paid US$63,000 as salaries and benefits.”, “a US$1.4 million package for their salaries”

WHICH IS IT?

The first suggests that perhaps US$63,000 in salaries is split each month between the staff, if there are 37 staff that would be $1700 each a month and therefore each gets 1700×12=$20,400 a year.

The second is straightforward, they each get US$63,000 a years.

The third US$1.4 million split between the 37 staff means they each receive $1.4million/37=$37800 a year.

So what’s the annual salary they each get? Is it $20,400, $63,000, or $37,800?

The take away, however, is that an interim management team of a company which went bankrupt as a result of graft and waste has been repeating the mistakes of its predecessors through reckless spending. And that reasoning is indisputable.

What jolted me though is the reported statement of Senator Comanny Wesseh that his colleagues weren’t auditors. Where was he when his wife’s God ma, EJS, “took responsibility” for the bankruptcy at NOCAL to, allegedly, prevent auditing into what precipitated the financial mess there?

Imagine a former student wannabe -:Che Guevara, who claimed to have been holding governments accountable, morphing into an obstructionist of Senate legislative oversight as a senator. Which, by the way, happens to be the only reason for his presence in the Senate. Or has he lost his revolutionary manhood between then, and now?

Well, from past conflict of interest allegations at the Ministry of Agriculture to threatening would -be CDC demonstrators in the midst of soldiers at the Ministry of Defense, we’ve been watching with disbelief the transformation to a self – absorbed greedy bourgeoisie of this once man – of – the – people radical.

Truth be told, until these guys start taking the existential problems of Liberia seriously, the country will be doomed like the Democratic Republic of Congo. Or, perhaps, they just don’t care.

I thought the mere fact that majority of the marginalized, for what it is worth, have indigenous names would have elicited compassion for their plight, and, consequently, concern for public finance from the likes of the Wessehs, Mulbahs, Massallays, and so on.

Later it is stated that the interim management team of 37 workers received the sum of US$1 million annual salary. I’m speculating this is where the media report alleging a financially-bloated payroll at NOCAL.
There is no breakdown as to how much the 3 employees received, or what was paid to the 34 contractors, nor how long did the contract last.

Nevertheless, the theme of this NOCAL article is what work was accomplished for such large sum of money? Who ran the NOCAL to its demise? There is too much complacency by these law makers when it comes to investigating how government money is spent? They wait for the media to do their job for them!

There is too much waste in our government ………law makers and government officials are receiving ridiculously high salaries and unwarranted perks when our teachers, doctors, nurses, police, emergency workers and military people are underpaid. Law makers and government officials are receiving ridiculously high salaries and unnecessary perks when our roads are virtually impassable in many counties of Liberia.

The entire Ellen Johnson’s government is corrupt and need to be investigated and prosecuted. Confiscate what they have for government. Liberia will never develop if we don’t hold those responsible for economic crimes. Thank, Rev Urias Dixon.

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